The political movement of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was on the verge of withdrawing from the Iraqi government because of Baghdad's close ties to Washington, a senior official in the movement said on Saturday.Abdul-Mehdi al-Muteyri said Sadr's movement, which has six ministers in cabinet including those for health and agriculture, would not remain in a government which he said constantly defended the U.S. occupation."Our withdrawal from the government is now inevitable and might take place in a matter of days," he said."If there is no change from the government and its policy of appeasement for the occupation, then we will go ahead," Muteyri told Reuters.... http://www.alertnet.org

The U.N. Security Council has decided to send a mission to Kosovo and Serbia this month for a firsthand assessment of the situation before tackling the future status of the Serbian province, Russia's U.N. ambassador said. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Friday the council has also agreed to conduct a comprehensive review of progress since the U.N. took charge of running Kosovo in 1999. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority has been pressing for independence but Serbia, which has close cultural ties with Russia, is vehemently opposed. While the U.S. and key European nations strongly support eventual independence for Kosovo, Russia, South Africa and other council members are sympathetic to keeping the province part of Serbia. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3042483

A 1999 metallic gray Volkswagen Golf believed to once belong to the pope went up for sale on eBay, but the auction ended Saturday without a winner. For the second time in two years, eBay hosted an auction for a car said to be Pope Benedict XVI's old hatchback. Though bids surpassed $204,000, a reserve price wasn't met. The car's owner, a Texas-based online casino, GoldenPalace.com, bought the car in 2005 on eBay from a German man. The casino had posted two German automobile registration documents that list "Josef Kardinal Ratzinger" as the vehicle's previous owner. A spokeswoman for eBay, Catherine Fisher, said she did not know what the seller's minimum price was. A message left with GoldenPalace.com was not immediately returned Saturday evening. The online auction site said it had verified the ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3042492

A conservative German governor said Saturday he regretted any "misunderstanding" about his eulogy of a colleague with a Nazi past, but stopped short of withdrawing his remarks. Baden-Wuerttemberg governor Guenther Oettinger has faced growing criticism for describing his predecessor, Hans Filbinger, as "an opponent of the Nazi regime" during a memorial service last week. Filbinger resigned as governor of the same state in 1978 when it was revealed he had served as a Nazi-era naval judge and had been involved in cases that ended in death sentences. He died April 1 at the age of 93. Oettinger, in an open letter made available Saturday, said it was customary to praise the deceased in a eulogy and that he had not intended to downplay the Nazi era. But he did not retract the remarks or apologize for them. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3042473

A U.S. Marine unit broke international humanitarian law by using excessive force during a shooting spree last month that left 12 people dead, an Afghan human rights group said in a report Saturday. The troops fired indiscriminately at pedestrians, people in cars, public buses and taxis in six different locations along a 10-mile stretch of road in Nangahar province after an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into their convoy on March 4, according to the report by Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission. Six people were killed near the blast site, while the other six died on the road as the troops sped away, said Ahmad Nader Nadery, the group's spokesman. The dead included a 1-year-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and three women, the report said. Thirty-five people were wounded in the shootings. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3042343

Anti-Kremlin demonstrators plan to take to the streets of St Petersburg on Sunday, a day after a rally in Moscow ended in scuffles and arrests. The protesters, allied under the Other Russia coalition, say the Russian president is stifling democracy. During Saturday's march in the capital, 170 people were arrested, including activist Garry Kasparov. The former chess champion was freed several hours later after being fined $40 (£20) for public order offences. Organisers said that the tough reaction to the Moscow march would boost the turnout at the rally in Russia's second-largest city. "After what Moscow and Russian authorities are doing, I think far more people will come tomorrow," said Olga Kurnosova, the leader of Mr Kasparov's United Civil Front in St Petersburg. Organisers have yet to decide whether they will try to march down the city's main street. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6556739.stm